Top 10 New Products 2009

Packing 25 percent more silage in its 14-foot diameter bag than a conventional 12-ft. silage bagger, the Ag-Bag, a Miller-St. Nazianz, Inc. Company, X1114 Professional self-propelled bagger represents the results of two years of development and testing.

It’s the highest capacity, most produCompared to a 12-ft. bagger, which typically packs forage at the rate of about 2 to 2¼-tons per linear foot on a wet-ton basis, this model can produce densities of as much as 3 tons per linear foot in a bag as long as 500 feet, he reports.

This increased packing density reflects the longer tunnel and the low position of the 11-foot rotor. “This position packs feed from the bottom to the top, resulting in more uniform packing.

The four-wheel drive X1114 is powered by a CAT C-15 580-hp Tier III engine, which offers the latest in fuel efficiency and emissions reductions. The single pass-through cooling system features 6 separate side-by-side coolers, stacked, to cool the engine; air conditioning; and oils for clutch, planetary, and hydraulic system for improved performance.

Fully electronic CAN bus controls provide true fly-by-wire operation, replacing multiple hydraulic levers used to operate the machine with a single joystick for easy maneuvering. The on-board diagnostics include a screen that displays both primary and secondary engine functions, such as engine speed, fuel consumption and engine temperature.

The 43,000-pound X1114 folds up to a length of 27 feet and a width of under 10 feet for transport. It’s easy to transport. You can attach the front end to a pintle hitch and pull the bagger on its two rear wheels. Or, for longer distance, you can haul it on a low-boy trailer.

A patented environmentally-friendly device that fits into the main line of drip, sprinkler or flood irrigation systems allows growers to stretch limited water supplies without chemicals and without extra electrical power.

Made by Aqua-PhyD, the unit measures 48 inches long and depending on size of pipeline, about 12 inches in diameter. It is mounted between the sand filters and before the line goes into the ground.

The technology exploits quantum electrodynamic processes to transfer energy into the water passing through the unit. As a result, potential energy stored within the water is significantly enhanced. When that water hits the soil, the stored potential energy is released, opening up soils and improving infiltration and percolation of water.

This technology improves hydraulic conductivity, increasing water use efficiency. In addition to using less water, the system can help reduce use of irrigation pumps to lower energy costs.

The Aqua-PhyD unit also improves leaching of salts which enables the use of water with high levels of total dissolved solids (TDS).

The Aqua-PhyD system also aids crop development by stimulating plant and root growth.

The Aqua-PhyD system fits any agricultural pump, Rai notes. Each unit is custom-fit to match the pump size, flow rates and diameter of the main line.

Aqua-PhyD costs about $45,000. That price includes a three-year warranty, and semi-annual water and soil tests to review soil health, nutrient uptake, water usage, and perform plant analysis.

When mounted on the control panel of an inductive motor, a small electrical storage unit, distributed by Energy Recyclers, prevents expensive damage to older motors caused by brown-outs while cutting energy costs significantly.

Called the Green Box, this capacitor from Energy Recyclers onverts the centrifugal energy generated by the motor’s rotating windings into electricity. It saves this energy, which would otherwise be wasted, and feeds it back to the motor. As a result, you need less electricity to produce the same amount of output.

The older the motor, the lower the efficiency. However, newer motors don’t always mean more efficiency. Some motors may be no more than about 50 percent efficient in using electrical power. At that rate, a motor producing 500 watts of power would require 10 amps of energy to operate.

The Green Box can increase the power factor or efficiency of that motor to 100 percent, reducing the amperage required to just 5 amps. In the Central Valley of California, this unit has produced upwards of 20 percent savings on electrical bills.

To prevent pulling power when it is not working and putting too much load on electrical power lines, the capacitor engages only when the motor is running.

Because the Green Box improves amperage regulation, the motor can operate up to about 10 percent cooler for more efficiency. This can extend the life of the motor by 15 percent or more.

Made by Kvar Energy Savings, Inc., Port Orange, Fla., the capacitor can be used with other types of inductive motors, including those used with well pumps and cold storage facilities and meat packing plants.

The family-owned Energy Recyclers company, in business in Fresno, Calif., for more than 30 years, sells and installs the Green Box.

By spraying only the tree canopies and not the spaces between them, a new sensing system for sprayers offers a simple way to achieve dramatic cuts in chemical use and expenses when treating young trees.

The new LectroSense technology, developed by Progressive Ag Inc., to fit its line of LectroBlast Electrostatic Sprayers, can cut chemical costs by 75 percent or more, while also reducing waste and drift, reports Mark Ryckman, the company’s sales manager.

Many growers have found that computerized devices for reducing chemical use when spraying young trees are too complicated to operate easily.

This new technology was designed to be as simple as possible to use. An average tractor operator with no computer skills can run it day-in and day-out.

The LectroSense technology, which underwent four-years of research and development, is designed for use in young trees up until the canopies are touching.

The system features an electronic sensor mounted at the end of a break-away boom on each side of the sprayer. The boom adjusts manually from 3 to 7 ft. in length to fit different row spacings. The sensor height can also be changed to match different trunk or berm heights.

The LectroSense system is designed for use in young uniform orchards. When the sensor detects a tree it signals the sprayer when to turn on and when to turn off, spraying only the tree. Spray operation is controlled by a simple delay system. There are no sonar-based sensors or computerized controls on the machine. Also, you can use this system day or at night.

The LectroSense system can be used on the company’s LectroBlast 300, 400, 500 or 600 gallon electrostatic orchard models. They are available as PTO- or engine-driven and can operate at electrostatic low volume rates or high volume dilute.

New to the United States, a machine designed for use in packing houses, warehouses and supermarkets offers the ability to automatically wrap as many as 850 or more pieces of produce per hour in a plastic film.

The NV-851 Produce Wrapping Machine, made by San-Ai Corporation, USA, is the latest advance in the company’s product, which has been used for more than 15 years in Japan where more than 7,000 units have been sold.

It can wrap 130 percent faster and is more durable than the previous model.The machine can wrap a wide variety of produce, such as heads of iceberg lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower as well as individual mini-cucumbers, bell peppers and zucchini.

It can also wrap leafy lettuces, such as Boston and butter, and multiple mushrooms, peppers and other produce items covering an area no larger than about 9 by 8 inches. The NV-851 represents the results of continual improvements in the product line.

Unlike a machine that uses shrink wrapping to package produce, the NV-851 features a mechanical method of wrapping. It begins when the operator places an item on the wrapping film in the machine’s tray.

A sensor detects the item and activates the automatic wrapping process.. The machine detects the subtle differences in the individual produce commodity size, then wraps the proper amount of plastic film around the item with just enough pressure to prevent any bruising.

The NV-851 uses a special food grade wrapping film developed by San-Ai. Customers report it can double the shelf life of produce compared to items bagged in the field or left unwrapped. The crystal clear fil produces a product that looks appealing to customers.

A new spray-on house fly bait product, which can be used with granular scatter fly baits, takes control of house flies in livestock facilities to a new, higher level.

QuickBayt Spot Spray, made by Bayer Animal Health, can be applied indoors and outdoors out of reach of livestock and domestic animals to kill flies quickly on walls, posts, beams, ceilings and other vertical and overhead surfaces where conventional scatter baits can’t be used.

It represents an entirely new concept in house fly control. There’s no need to treat the entire area. You just spray the product in a large spot about as wide as your out-stretched arms, to quickly make a bait station that covers about 4 square feet. These spots, spaced a few feet apart attract the flies. Once they feed on the treated area, they die in less than a minute.

QuickBayt Spot Spray can be used around dairy facilities to control house flies in milking parlors, free-stall barns and calf hutches.

It’s also very useful in egg laying facilities where wet manure provide an ideal environment for flies and where the slatted floors make it difficult to treat with granular baits. It can also be used in feed lots, swine facilities, horse stables, kennels and other animal confinement facilities.

The product’s active ingredient is imidacloprid, the same chemical used in topical flea treatments for cats and dogs and for controlling termites as well as insect pests in many fruit and nut crops.

The product is packaged in a 1-pound plastic container and sells for about $40. One pound of QuickBayt Spot Spray will treat 250 spots, each covering 4 square feet, at a cost of less than $0.20 per spot.

That compares to a 1-foot long, 3-inch wide bait station containing an attractant that is hung on walls, which may cost around $5 to $8 per bait station.

A new solar powered electronic camera system lets you keep an eye on fence gates, fuel storage areas and other remote locations, day or night, from anywhere in the world.

Made by Ranch Systems, the unique RanchCam uses wireless technology to transmit images from the camera via the Internet to a desktop or laptop computer or to a smartphone in near real time. The images are viewed using the company’s weather station network software and an Internet browser.

Unlike other remote camera systems, the RanchCam doesn’t require power and telecommunications lines to operate. The RanchCam, which has night vision and motion detection features, can be used for more than controlling theft and property access.

For example, you could use it with our network of weather station sensors to assess water needs of a crop by checking the appearance of leaves and then to start or stop irrigation as needed.

The RanchCam would be useful for collecting a series of time-lapse images to track crop development during the season. It also offers a timely, convenient way to monitor wildlife activity in an area.

The RanchCam consists of a digital camera and a battery-solar panel unit, which powers the camera. Typically, the two components are mounted on the same pole. The energy-saving system is activated only when a sensor detects motion.

This system also requires a base station, available from Ranch Systems or other vendors. The RanchCam can send images wirelessly to this station up to a distance of one mile. These images are then uploaded over cellular phone or WiFi networks to the company’s secure data center.

The modular design provides a wide range of options to address your needs.

The job of laying drip irrigation tape — loading the full roll and dispensing the tape — is now a lot faster, easier and safer than it used to be.

Andros Engineering’s Series III Carrier is designed to meet the challenge of placing drip tape accurately to meet the tighter tapeline spacings required with intensive crop planting practices.

In many applications it’s difficult, if not impossible, to load heavy rolls of tape and correctly lay the tape using conventional drip tape equipment and methods because the tape rolls have to be placed so close together. The Series III Carrier solves those problems.

The unit includes an arbor shaft for handling a spool of tape, a cradle for holding the shaft and spool combination, and a brake to control free-wheeling of the tape at the end of a row. It can be mounted on a variety of planting implements, including tomato sleds, onion machines and corn planters in addition to bed shapers or a dedicated tool bar.

You can mount multiple units and adjust the spacing as needed, from one line per bed up to three lines per 40-inch bed. Because of its unique design, you have a lot of flexibility in configuring the Series III Carrier to easily fit a wide variety of tape layout scenarios.

One of the goals in designing the Series III Carrier was to reduce the chance of injury when loading reels of tape, which can weigh from about 50 pounds up to about 100 pounds each.

The Series III Carrier features a lightweight device, or tape reel carrier, for holding an individual reel of tape and placing it in the cradle. The Series III Carrier is also designed for durability; it is built with top quality components and protected with an excellent paint job to hold up to hard work and long periods of outside storage.

Combining a specially-designed attachment and an innovative three-wheel battery-powered drive-unit, a new walk-behind machine takes the work out of moving heavy barrels of livestock feed.

The TeMax Barrel Transport attachment is made by SK Engineering, the exclusive U.S. distributor of the German-made TeMax drive unit. The company developed the attachment at the request of a feed mill owner, who was looking for an easier, faster way to safely move re-useable plastic barrels filled with feed from a delivery truck to a customer’s barn, even up a steep hill.

The TeMax Barrel Transport is perfect for that application. It’s also ideal for use by farmers in horse stables, dairy barns and around smaller cattle feeding facilities. The environmentally-friendly machine offers tremendous maneuverability for working in tight spaces.

It makes no noise, gives off no air pollution and is very versatile. You interchange the barrel attachment with other attachments without tools and use the machine in many different types of jobs. With a hauling capacity of 550 pounds, it can work all day long on a single battery charge.

The 300-pound TeMax drive unit, which measures just 30 inches wide at the two drive wheels, can be driven up a cargo ramp to easily fit into the back of a pickup truck or van for transport.

The barrel handling attachment is mounted by sliding its platform under the bottom of the barrel. A steel bail, which flips over the top of the barrel, and two pins secure it in place. The barrel is then tipped back to safely move it over almost any kind of terrain.

The TeMax, itself, is made of heavy-gauge steel and features two drive wheels and a rear caster wheel for turning. Powered by a 350-watt DC motor, it includes a 24-volt battery charger, with a converter, that plugs into a 110-volt AC outlet.

Monitoring and controlling pivot irrigation equipment without traveling to the field has never been easier or more convenient. The new Valley Tracker Mobile enables you to check the status of a sprinkler irrigation machine and control its operations anywhere you have cell phone coverage just by pressing the phone’s touch screen. All you need are a Web-enabled smartphone or smart PDA, a Windows mobile browser and access to the Internet.

With remote technology, like this, you control your irrigation equipment at your convenience. No more driving through rough fields at 2 a.m. to check or stop your irrigation during a rain storm.

Unlike competitive products for cell phones that show only text-based information and text messages, this product provides colorful graphics to depict the current status of each machine. Using the smartphone’s touch screen, you can view different status reports, check for any malfunctions and send commands to operate the irrigation machine at the press of a finger.

Tracker Mobile is designed specifically for use with a smartphone or smart PDA.You don’t need to call every individual pivot to check its status. With this new technology you can make one call with your Smartphone to check the status of all your machines and to select detailed information about each one. It saves time, money and hassles.

Tracker Mobile is included with each new Valley Tracker or TrackerSP. Valley Tracker products are compatible with all Valley control panels and most non-Valley control panels.